The massive bushfires in Australia are still spreading as heat, high winds, and (mostly) dry weather as flames keep burning through much of the southeastern part of the country.
The blazes have proved deadly and destructive, burning through more than 15.6 million acres, or more than 24,000 square miles — an area larger than the state of West Virginia. The fires have now killed at least 25 people and destroyed more than 2,000 homes. An estimated 1 billion animals have been lost in the disaster.
What’s the cause of these fires? It’s a mix of ocean circulation, years of drought, and climate change fueling Australia’s record heat. It’s currently summer in Australia, and high temperatures, dry weather, and wildfires are not unusual this time of year. But the severity and continued persistence of these fiery conditions are alarming.
Australia’s bushfires are approaching its capital Canberra
The Australian Capital Territory declared a state of emergency as bushfires encroach on Canberra amid high winds and heat. Brook Mitchell/Getty ImagesThe ongoing bushfires that have devastated Australia closed in on the country’s capital, Canberra, on Friday as it declared its first state of emergency since 2003.
The Rural Fire Service of New South Wales, the state surrounding the capital, warned of severe fire danger for the Australian Capital Territory, with flames and embers projected to spread well inside the region on Saturday. The territory is home to more than 400,000 residents, and nearly half of it is at risk of “ember attack” and flames.
Read Article >Invasion Day is a day of mourning for Indigenous Australians. The bushfires make this year extra poignant.
An Aboriginal protestor holds native Australian plants used for a smoking ceremony during a demonstration by Aboriginal rights activists in Melbourne, Australia, on January 26, 2018. Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesThe raging bushfires in Australia have been unimaginably devastating for the whole country — at least 29 people have been killed, over 2,500 homes and 27 million acres have gone up in flames, and 1 billion animals are estimated dead.
What has received far less attention in the media is how the fires have affected the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The fires are concentrated in New South Wales, which is home to the largest population of Indigenous people in Australia.
Read Article >What it’s like to live through the Australian bushfires
The small seaside town of Mallacoota, Victoria, during the Australian bushfires on December 30, 2019. Courtesy of Jonathan VeaFor much of January, it’s been impossible to turn on the news without seeing bright red images from Australia of trees engulfed in flames, families being evacuated, and people in face masks braving thick walls of smoke. Videos of kangaroos looking for refuge on neighborhood lawns have gone viral, while images of koalas drinking out of rescue workers’ water bottles (perhaps dangerously) have tugged at heartstrings far and wide.
Yet even as the Australian wildfires continue to be vast and devastating, it remains difficult to comprehend their full impact.
Read Article >Brian Resnick, Umair Irfan and 1 more
8 things everyone should know about Australia’s wildfire disaster
Residents look on as flames burn through bush in Lake Tabourie, Australia, on January 4, 2020. Brett Hemmings/Getty ImagesSince September, at least 27 million acres of Australia have burned in one of the country’s worst fire seasons on record. That’s an area larger than Portugal, and more than 14 times the area that burned in California in 2018, the state’s most destructive year for wildfires.
The fires have now killed at least 29 peopleand destroyed some 2,500 homes. The destruction to the country’s land and biodiversity is harder to fathom. An estimated 1.25 billion animals have been lost, and scientists fear long-term damage to many sensitive ecosystems.
Read Article >Madeline Marshall, Danush Parvaneh and 1 more
Why Australia’s fires are linked to floods in Africa
Australia’s recent fire season has been hellish, and there’s no end in sight. At least 17.9 million acres have burned, 28 people have died, and an estimated 1 billion animals have been lost.
But while Australia burns, East Africa has been grappling with record-breaking rainfall leading to catastrophic floods. Both have a common cause — and it lies in the Indian Ocean.
Read Article >Australia’s weird weather is getting even weirder
Australia’s climate is prone to extremes, but ongoing warming has made them worse, fueling the ongoing bushfires across the country. Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty ImagesThe gargantuan bushfires across Australia continue to rage. They’ve burned at least 17.9 million acres, destroyed more than 3,000 homes, and killed at least 28 people since September. The choking smoke from these blazes is causing a health crisis and has literally circled the world. At the Australian Open in Melbourne this week, Slovenia’s Dalila Jakupovic forfeited her match after keeling over as smoke from the wildfires permeated the tennis stadium and made it difficult for her to breathe.
Australia’s bushfires and the conditions behind them are alarming and unprecedented, but not unexpected. Australia is warming faster than the global average due to climate change, and parts of the country are getting drier.
Read Article >Christophe Haubursin, Danush Parvaneh and 1 more
Are Australia’s koalas going extinct? We asked an ecologist.
This fire season has been one of the worst on record in Australia. So far, an area the size of Portugal has burned, and 1 billion animals are estimated to have died — among them, the koala. Slow-moving and dependent on the forest, koalas have been especially hard hit, with an estimated 8,000 lost in New South Wales alone.
Koalas were already threatened before these fires broke out. For decades, humans have hunted koalas for their pelts and destroyed their habitats through deforestation. As a result, the population has dropped dramatically. Between 1788 and 2010, the koala population in Australia decreased by 95 percent. But after this year’s fire season, experts believe koalas are now in danger of extinction — unless policy changes are put in place to save them.
Read Article >Why Amazon’s donation to the Australian wildfires provoked a backlash — but Facebook’s didn’t
Thick smoke from bushfires in Bruthen, Australia, on January 13, 2020. Photo by Chris Hopkins/Getty ImagesOn Sunday, Jeff Bezos announced that Amazon will donate $690,000 ($1 million Australian) in assistance to wildfire recovery after Australia’s devastating bushfires. Twenty-eight people and more than one billion animals have died in the fires, which have burned an estimated 15.6 million acres of land.
All around the world, people have come together to raise money to help — from the band Metallica to Kylie Jennerto national governments to do-gooders on Twitter.
Read Article >Can the catastrophic fires bring some sanity to Australian climate politics?
A firefighter hoses down trees and flying embers in an effort to secure nearby houses from bushfires near Nowra in the Australian state of New South Wales on December 31, 2019. Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty ImagesThe world is watching our country burn. More than 17.9 million acres have gone up in flames since September, an area 15 times the Amazon fires. At least 27 people have died. A billion animals and 2,000 homes may have been lost. And we are only about halfway through the fire season.
A complex interplay of weather phenomena and systems — including a positive-phase Indian Ocean Dipole, the cycle of the temperature gradient between the eastern and western parts of the Indian Ocean — has created the tinder-dry landscape. But the record temperatures and drought conditions linked to climate change have vastly intensified the fires.
Read Article >An Australian ecologist explains just how bad the fires are for wildlife
A wallaby licks its burnt paws after escaping a bushfire in New South Wales on November 12, 2019. Wolter Peeters/The Sydney Morning Herald via Getty ImagesAustralia’s wildfires have been terrifying to watch. It’s one of the country’s worst fire seasons on record: 17.9 million acres have burned. That’s an area larger than West Virginia, and more than nine times the area that burned in California in 2018, the state’s most destructive year for wildfires.
People have been forced out of their homes, and at least 27 have died. It’s a serious humanitarian disaster. But perhaps the greatest damage is to wildlife. An estimated 1 billion animals have been lost, and scientists fear long-term damage to many sensitive ecosystems.
Read Article >The viral false claim that nearly 200 arsonists are behind the Australia fires, explained
Police have reported a handful of arson incidents in Australia’s recent bushfires, but nowhere near the number that some claim. Luis Ascui/Getty ImagesA false claim that a big wave of arson is driving Australia’s raging bushfires has gone viral this week on social media, particularly among climate skeptics grasping for a counter-narrative about the wildfire disaster.
Donald Trump Jr. and Sean Hannity were among the most prominent tweeters this week of the allegation that close to 200 people in Australia have been charged with arson for deliberately lighting brushfires. Other people on the right, as well as bots trying to amplify climate skepticism, jumped on board with the hashtag #ArsonEmergency.
Read Article >Nude photos raised over $1 million for the Australia fires
Bushfires have destroyed more than 15 million acres in Australia, and officials say some blazes could continue for months. Darrian Traynor/Getty ImagesA series of devastating wildfires have burned millions of acres in Australia. Across the continent, an estimated 1 billion animals have been killed, and fire officials say some individual blazes will continue burning for months. As the crisis garnered global attention this past week, a 20-year-old model has gone viral for incentivizing her followers to donate to approved Australian charities — by sending fans explicit photos for every $10 they give, provided they send her confirmation of the donation.
Kaylen Ward, a California resident who calls herself the Naked Philanthropist, has raised, by her estimates, more than $1 million in contributions to Australian charities and evacuation centers, such as the Australian Red Cross and WWF (formerly the World Wildlife Fund). Ward told the Guardian that since she had a dedicated follower base from modeling and selling nude content, she hoped to urge them to contribute money to the fire relief efforts.
Read Article >As Australia burns, its leaders are clinging to coal
Firefighters battle a bushfire in New South Wales on December 31, 2019. Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty ImagesThe devastating bushfires across Australia have cemented the fact that the country is on the front lines of a major climate-linked disaster, one that scientists saw coming and one that will only get worse from here.
The fires have already torched an area larger than West Virginia, destroyed 2,000 homes, and killed at least 26 people since igniting in September. The blazes clouded the skies above cities like Canberra and Sydney, creating some of the worst air pollution in the world. The swirling smoke is so dense, satellites can see it from space.
Read Article >A staggering 1 billion animals are now estimated dead in Australia’s fires
A kangaroo jumps in a field amid smoke from a bushfire in Snowy Valley on the outskirts of Cooma, Australia, on January 4, 2020. Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty ImagesAs fires continue to rip through Australia, some devastating numbers are emerging: At least 24 people killed. More than 15.6 million acres torched. Over 1,400 homes destroyed. And, according to one biodiversity expert’s count, an estimated 1 billion animals killed.
That last number is staggeringly huge, and has begun to make the rounds on social media.You might be wondering: How are so many animals dying? And how do we know the number of animals killed?
Read Article >Australia’s hellish heat wave and wildfires, explained
Bushfires raging amid extreme heat in Australia sent choking smoke over neighborhoods this week, like this pool in Shoalhaven Heads, New South Wales. Cassie Spencer/Getty ImagesBushfires continue to rage in Australia this week, even as an area larger than West Virginia has been torched since the current round of blazes ignited last September.
It’s already one of Australia’s worst fire seasons on record and the deadly heat, wind, smoke, and flames show no signs of letting up through the week. Over the weekend, high winds spread massive smoke plumes, triggering storms and impeding firefighters.
Read Article >Australia’s massive fires, as seen from space
Fires have been burning in Australia since September and have sent smoke into cities, like this blaze near Shark Creek in New South Wales. Orbital Horizon/Copernicus Sentinel Data/Gallo Images/Getty ImagesThe massive bushfires in Australia are still spreading as heat, high winds, and dry weather push flames through much of the southeastern part of the country.
The blazes have proved deadly and destructive, burning through more than 15.6 million acres, or more than 24,000 square miles, an area larger than the state of West Virginia. The fires have now killed at least 24 people and destroyed more than 1,400 homes.
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